April 2010

We flew to St. Louis, my first time there. Frank has been there on business and his business colleague always asks Frank, “Why would anyone want to go to St. Louis?” Well, I have the answer, because St Louis has a lot to offer, that’s why! Besides the Arch, Forest Park is full of free museums and there is so much more.

The morning we left, we were getting reports of 10+ mile visibility with 12,000-foot ceilings, sounds great, huh? Well, from the haze we flew through, I think the two weren’t coincident. There was 10+ mile visibility at the ground and a 12,000 foot ceiling but pretty crappy visibility between the ground and the ceiling. Oh, well! We flew right past Springfield (IL) and saw the Capitol building (sans Blago).

We landed at St Louis Regional Airport in Alton, Illinois, right across the Mississippi from St. Louis. (There’s Amelia Bearheart and the GPS leading the way to the runway.) Very friendly FBO, (West Star).

As soon as we drove out of the FBO, an F4 Phantom amidst a sea of purple and white flowering trees greeted us. Springtime in St. Louis – isn’t life grand!

I was so excited to see the Arch as we approached St. Louis. As we would learn during our visit, the Gateway Arch is a symbol of the spirit of the pioneers who made their way west. I’m guessing the long waiting lines carry that symbolism to evoke the pioneers miserably trudging across the country.

There is a visitor’s parking garage just to the north of the Arch – but of course no one tells you to go thru security at the south Arch entrance where the lines are a lot shorter. Like the rest of the lemmings, we waited in a 20-minute airport security type line just to get in to the lobby. We purposely visited the Arch before summer season, but it was still very busy. I would hate to see it during the height of their tourist season. We still had lines for security (20 minutes), lines for tickets (20 minutes), lines for the tram to the top of the Arch (1 hour), ($10) and lines to board the tram to get back down again (20 minutes). But boy, those 5 minutes at the top of the arch were breathtaking! Well, truthfully, the arch is 630 feet high and we had just finished flying in at 6,500 feet for 2 hours but, hey, ya gotta do the arch once, right?

After that, we had gotten so used to the lines, we said, “what the heck, lets wait in another line for the riverboat cruise on the Mississippi” ($14).

Since our timed tram tickets were for 1:15, and to allow 1 hour to make the trip up and down the Arch, and we had 3:00 riverboat tickets, we figured we had better head for lunch. There are no restaurants at the Arch, but just north of the Arch (a 10 minute walk) is Laclede’s Landing which has a variety of restaurants on cobblestone streets. We dined outside (it was in the low 70’s – it doesn’t get better than this!) at Hannegan’s on Second Street with a beautiful view of the Arch. Believe it or not, it reminded me of Paris where we had lunch with a view of the Eiffel Tower! Frank later shared that sentiment with his St. Louis colleague who confided that he also often confuses St. Louis and Paris. (I think they’re making fun.)

The walk to the Arch was so pretty as the Arch is in a park by the Mississippi River, and the flowering trees were just beautiful. We had enough time before 1:15 to tour the Westward Expansion Museum, which is under the Arch – this time going thru security at the south end (5 minutes). The museum is free and has very nice exhibits on the pioneers, the Great Plains and Lewis and Clark. And of course there were also the requisite gift shops.

Timing worked out well, and at 1:10 we were on line for the tram to the top. At 1:50 we finally boarded the 5-person tram (very cozy) for the 4-minute ride. Unfortunately when we reached the top, we found that the viewing area is not very large and was jam-packed. So we squeezed our way over to the small (and not very clean) windows and took a couple of photos – nice views of the Old Courthouse and Busch stadium, and then waited on line for our ride back down.

I’m glad we took the tram ride, since the Arch is an iconic symbol of the USA, (but it really isn’t worth the wait or the $).

Now it was time for our first riverboat ride on the Mississippi! Great views of the Arch, but not much of a skyline – not like Chicago or NYC. The boat travels both north and then south of the Arch. The river was fairly high – about 43’ according to the marker. At 50’ the boats can no longer fit under the bridges. There was a statute of Lewis (and Clark) supposedly at the water’s edge, but all you could see was Lewis’ hand in the air (Clark is either VERY good at holding his breath or had long since drowned.) But all in all it was a beautiful day to be on the Mississippi (unless, of course, you were Clark)!

We made our way back to the airport, and took off at 5:30. Again they were reporting 10+ miles visibility, but now it was very, very hazy. Thank goodness for Frank’s Serengeti sunglasses! Thank you Optics Planet! With a tailwind, we were back in Waukegan in 2 hours! Beats driving for 5 hours on I-55!